Our ancient thinkers were of the view that the worst state of affairs possible in society is a state of lawlessness. When the rule of law collapses, it is replaced by matsyanyaya, which means the law of the jungle. In Sanskrit the word ‘matsya’ means fish, and matsyanyaya means the state of affairs when the […]
Dr Joseph Needham (1900-1995) was a brilliant British biochemist who had obtained a doctorate from Cambridge University in 1925, specializing in embryology and morphogenesis. Later, Dr. Needham developed an interest in China, and after visiting that country several times, he wrote his mammoth book Science and Civilization in China in 24 volumes (see Simon Winchester’s […]
When Giordano Bruno proposed his cosmological theory of an infinite Universe with many worlds, he was castigated by academics and theologians alike and was eventually burnt at the stake by the Catholic Church. Copernicus and Galileo, too, were persecuted for proposing the heliocentric model of the Universe, while countless women were burned and drowned after […]